Ban fracking in Pa.

The fracking process is replete with disastrous consequences, from discovery to completion of a well to transporting the gas from one end of the country to the other.

With fracking being exempt from the Clean Water Act, the industry uses a massive amount of this precious resource. In Pennsylvania there isn't even any charge for companies to use massive amounts of our water from rivers or streams.

Fracking is ruining wells, destroying aquifers and creating the need to store vast amounts of chemical-laden sludge either underground or in open pits. Flaring and leaking methane is the invisible poison that destroys our air.

Studies have concluded that people living near fracking sites are increasingly getting ill. And then there is the need to pump this gas to markets by way of large, highly pressurized transmission lines that create lasting scars on vast tracts of land, putting communities at high risk.

It is time for our state to save our rural communities and think of ways that we can better provide energy to the country. Invest in communities by luring renewable energy companies to the areas that now are trapped in one of the seven circles of methane hell.